Buying Power with a personal touch
By Staff -- Industrial Distribution, 1/1/1998
Ask Jim Alexander how his company retooled itself and nearly tripled sales in six years and he'll credit his customers across Georgia for pointing the way.In 1991, a survey of 200 top customers convinced Alexander, president of Orton Industries, that his firm needed to offer more electronic automation technology and provide teams of product specialists to work closer with customers. Clients supplying the automotive industry, among others, were improving their machinery to become more competitive and looked to distributors for more product support and updated control equipment, explains Alexander.
"It became apparent that we needed to move more into the electronic automation technology so we reorganized the company to utilize a team concept'' with managers responsible for specific geographic areas, supported by product specialists, he says. "One of the keys to our success is we have a very technical sales staff, most of whom are certified fluid power specialists.''
The company, which was founded in 1969 and acquired by Alexander in 1984, also adopted what he calls a tri-technology approach in the early 1990s. Hydraulic, pneumatic and electronic systems are now often co-mingled depending upon the application, and being a single source for those products is the chief reason for Orton's success, he says.
A full-line distributor for Parker Hannifin Corp., Orton is based just north of Atlanta and has taken advantage of the growing automotive-related industries that stretch across that region. The company, which has 44 employees, acquired two smaller distributors during the past six years. Sales were expected to reach $13.5 million in 1997. In addition to its main facility and fabricating plant, Orton has two retail stores to maintain a strong presence as a local source for hose assemblies and fluid power components.
Along the way Orton has forged strong relationships with many manufacturers, some of whom credit the company's personal touch and commitment to help them meet tight deadlines. Wade Etheridge, vice president of Peach Tree Tooling, an automotive tooling manufacturer in Braselton, Ga., says Orton's hustle stands out. Occasionally, for example, when production engineers change a specification for an auto part a Peach Tree engineer must rush out to a customer's plant to make adjustments -- with someone from Orton in tow.
"When we're in a bind they're ready to go with us. That's where they really shine above everybody else," Etheridge says. Orton's salespeople will also check immediately with their supplier to make sure parts are available right away, Etheridge says.
"We're growing by bounds the last four to five years along with Orton,'' he says, singling out the motion control industry as spurring the most growth. "We take it as a compliment that they will put up with the demands we place on them.''
Carl Grotnes, president of Atlanta Grotnes Machine Co., a custom machinery manufacturer, said Orton's investment in a technically adept staff is evident. Orton's specialists work with his engineers to design hydraulic systems, pre-sizing them for efficiency and power.
To improve integrated supply for customers like Atlanta Grotnes, Orton and a group of other distributors joined the iPower consortium, a wholly owned subsidary of Parker Hannifin. Ronnie Scott, plant manager at Fasson, a division of Avery Dennison Manufacturing Co. in Peach Tree City, says since he began contracting with iPower two and-a-half years ago he has seen improvements in inventory control and other efficiencies.
"Together they leverage buying power and pretty much give me one-stop shopping and [meet] a large percent of the needs of our MRO supplies,'' Scott says.
Alexander, who is president of the Fluid Power Distributors Assn., sees challenges ahead for the industry as large chains such as Home Depot and Wal-mart enter the market. He says suppliers and distributors need to "partner much faster than we have in the past.''
"Our answer to a large national [chain] is iPower, and to some extent, we all have Parker distributorships,'' he says. "We all need to be flexible. The customer picks and chooses what he likes, and no two are alike. You better pick a niche and you better be damn good at it.'' I
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